In which I proffer my experience in the service of the East European mafia as a model for helping us help the Aricept generation.

Why and how the 17th century Portuguese tropical medicine specialist, Aleixo de Abreu, tried to prevent proles from reading his cure for scurvy.

Desultory bar philosophising on the socio-economic function of Secret Santa.

Nearsightedness is increasing, and there aren’t many other reasonable explanations.

It’s not what you steal, it’s the way that you steal it.

And it’s free.

Take Goig Heroin Elixir:

From La Vanguardia anno 1912. Their current principal source of immoral earnings, apart from editorial-related state subsidy and tax-(ahem-)efficient paid-for journalism, is, of course, brothel advertising. I seem to recall it worked out at around €1M pa, but now most things do. The first ever front page of this then conservative, Catholic [...]

Spanish insurers Fiatc have a fairly grisly reputation for health provision care in general. Here’s how they deal with you once you’re dead: “When we arrived at the crematorium we were taken in through the rear entrance, down a long corridor, where we passed someone else laying in a coffin, a woman walking down the [...]

Samir over at View from Fez says that around 100 kids die annually from scorpion bites in Morocco. They’re quite common in Spain too. Here’s one in the gardens of Can Ferrero in Barcelona’s Zona Franca district that scared the hell out of me:

Stricken by Barcelona belly, I’ve been trying out this 19th century cholera cure. It’s better with rice, but I’m still surprised more people didn’t die. (Sublimated sulphur is used by modern-day lepers, says the chemist, so that wasn’t a problem.)

“We print this recipe, not out of self-interest, since we are giving it away free, being inspired solely by the conviction that we have of its efficacy and to see if we can be of assistance to our fellow men.”

Usually when the Olympics come to town there’s a big clean-up, during which junkies with little muscles get kicked out to make way for junkies with big muscles. That’s what happened in Barcelona in 92, but from this op-ed piece by Costas Iordanidis in Kathimerini it sounds like the Greek government is not having it [...]

This excerpt from a court statement made on 1928/1/11 is taken from Paco Villar’s Historia y Leyenda del Barrio Chino (1997):

Here.

Molt bé, que DocMorris, una empresa holandesa, pot vendre medicaments sense recepta en línia. Desafortunadament no ens beneficiarà com a consumadors perquè, gràcies al seu model de alt volum/baix preu, Espanya segueix sent un dels millors països europeus per comprar drogues legals:

Font: IMS (2002)
Polònia és interessant. L’estat no subvenciona les marques conegudes i es ven [...]

O kijk! daar komt de ijsman aan. Stoer, he, maar wij gebruiken meer drugs dan Erik.

These two energetic logos are on one of my favourite day-off wanders: from the Plaça d’Espanya through the old backstreets of working class Sants up to Collblanc, then a slalom down through the drab poverty of l’Hospitalet, finishing up with wander down the ceramic-ridden old road back to the Plaça d’Espanya.
The first logo adorns [...]

In May I posted a Dutch translation (1, 2) of an article by Vic prof, Manuel Llanas, describing the influence of German printers in Catalunya in the late C15th and early C16th. Technology transfer from Germany to Catalunya slowed subsequently, due less to religious and political rivalries than to the relatively slow progress of capitalism [...]

Foto van eBay. Hierop staat dat hij een fabriek en/of kantoor had in Brussel. Graag doorgeven als je er iets van afweet.
Een man loopt de apotheek binnen en zegt dat z’n keel zeer doet. Zegt de apotheker: “Ik heb wat pillen van Dr Andreu, ze doen het erg goed.” “Nee, nee, die niet.” “En waarom [...]

“When I start singing you go out on the balcony.”